Tuesday, October 19, 2010

It is no secret that Illogical Contraption is a friend to the keytar. Shelby has posted about it a few times, others have used the keytar label in their posts, and I've even referenced it in a Sun Ra post some time ago. With this in mind I decided to ask Matt Garfield, the keytar wielding superhero behind Philadelphia's synth-punk outfit Mose Giganticus, about his love for the awesomeness of the keytar. Garfield's story is a bit legendary. He has gained a small amount of fame for touring his band to Alaska in a vegetable oil powered van named "IZ". Here is a video:

But while his tree hugging tour practices may be admirable, for our purposes it is his prowess as a master keytarist which is most interesting. Here is a video of Mose Giganticus covering the Styx classic "Mr Roboto":

And here is a track from their latest album, Gift Horse, Mose's second full-length, released on Relapse in July:

I recently interviewed Mr Garfield in advance of a show Mose Giganticus was set to play in my area and I reserved a special question for IC readers. You can read the full interview here, but here is the important part:

Me: You're an obvious proponent of the keytar? Any personal keytar heroes?

Matt Garfield: You know, for all the attention I get for playing the keytar, I'm not much of a keytar buff. Especially not in the genres of music I listen to most frequently. Hell, I'm not even sure there are many keytarists out there to begin with. Most keyboardists that can play worth a damn (unlike me) would opt for a keyboard on a stand so they could have full accessibility to the instrument. Playing a keyboard as a keytar is actually pretty restrictive. It works OK for playing basslines, which is how I use it in most of my songs, but to do anything intricate, you'd really be better off putting the keyboard on a stand.

"The best example I can give of a great keytar performance would be the Edgar Winter Group playing Frankenstein in 1973. But it's really just a keyboard slung over his shoulder with a strap."

"There's also this pretty sweet video of Rick Wakeman, cape clad, and his son Adam Wakeman rocking out a dueling keytar solo."

Mose Giganticus is touring through the midwest and the south until the end of November.